US Government As Represented by the Secretary of the Army

Marco Duca

Mohan J Palathingal

Sung K Chung

Anthony P Farina

Ryan Decker

Anthony Vella

Brian C Wong

Daniel Vo

Raymond Chaplin

Nicholas Liggett Grossman

Kyle Schaarschmidt

Eric Skoglund

Thomas Presutti

Ahmed Hassan

Christopher Vesper

Gregory Rodebaugh

Kip Hess

Kyle Kampo

Shawn Spickert-Fulton

Gregory M Kolasa

A projectile having a spin stabilized gyroscopically stable flight path due to a base flange. With the base flange, the aerodynamic overturning moment about the center of gravity is reduced to increase the gyroscopic stability factor for stable flight. In one application, a medium-caliber untethered human electro-muscular incapacitation (HEMI) projectile has improved effectiveness due to its stable flight from launch to targets. Other applications for damping resulted in significant improvement in ground dispersion of 40 mm projectiles. The increased stability and increased aerodynamic damping reduce coning motion during flight which ensures that the projectile arrives at the target with greater accuracy, and with its nose oriented for effective incapacitation of the target.

Projectile with improved flight performance

A multi-piece projectile for a small arm training ammunition round maintains stable flight until reaching transonic speeds. During transonic and subsonic flight, aerodynamic features located on the projectile generate a pressure differential to increase limit cycle motion of the projectile. The aerodynamic features are located on a portion of the projectile which does not interface with rifling elements of the gun barrel and may include protrusions in or extrusions from the projectile.

Dynamic instability reduced range round

The impact angle of a small caliber projectile is determined by accurately measuring the orientation angle of the projectile in flight and modeling epicyclical flight of the projectile. To measure the orientation angle, a projectile is fired along a trajectory within a test gantry. One or more sets of cameras captures images of the projectile in flight. The images are processed using computer vision to measure the position and orientation angle at each station. Calibration of the test equipment prior to the test firing of the projectile, allows for determination of these points in the 3d space of the test fixture. Aeroballistic models are fit to the orientation history. From these models, an impact angle is extrapolated.

Automated ammunition photogrammetry system

A kinetic energy penetrator for use in small caliber ammunition, which penetrator can utilize composite material small sabots. A large shear area in the sabot having a small number of decreasingly sized buttress grooves, mate to the penetrator shaft making use of composite material sabots feasible. Lightening of the penetrator through substitution of composite material sabots results in greater velocity with higher kinetic energy on lethal impact. The fewer grooves aerodynamically lessen drag and likewise tend to boost velocity plus lethal impact.

Long rod penetrator concept for small caliber munitions

A kinetic energy penetrator with a longitudinal axis may include a forward segment having a lateral surface, a rear surface, and at least one air bleed channel extending from the lateral surface to the rear surface. A second segment may be disposed aft of and torsionally engaged with the forward segment. The second segment may include a front surface adjacent the rear surface of the forward segment. The forward and second segments may each be asymmetric about the longitudinal axis of the penetrator. When the penetrator is in flight, bleed air through the bleed channels may impinge on the front surface of the second segment. The second segment may separate from the front segment. Kinetic energies of each of the forward and second segments may be less than about 75 joules upon impact with a ground surface.

Low collateral damage air defense projectile

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Dover, NJ, United States of America

Marco Duca